Category: The Magic Memories

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Visiting Juan Tamariz; Unexpected Agenda at the Printer; Magialdia 2024 – The Saga: Coming Soon!

These are The Magic Memories 197, gone online Sunday, October 6, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

First and foremost thank you to all who wrote in with good wishes and sent tea, rum and biscuits (someone even sent Sockeye Salmon from Alaska!); as a result I defeated Covid and am back in shape.

Fortunately so, because I have many things to recount.

Visiting Juan Tamariz

This year circumstances limited my visit to Juan Tamariz’s home in the south of Spain to only three days, instead of the usual full week, but they were intense days… or should I say nights 🙂

I’ll answer the most urgent question first: How is Juan’s health?

I’m glad to report that on my visit, seconded by Gary Plants’ and Paul Wilson’s presence, the Maestro enjoyed magic, talks and food as much as always.

On October 18th he will turn eighty-two, so you can then send your birthday wishes via Facebook, which his wife Consuelo manages.

I always tell my friends that Juan has actually lived not eighty-two years but at least one-hundred and eight-two years, having done ten times more than the most efficient among us talented people have done.

This is simply because he’s a genius.

People of talent are like the sun, but a genius is like the sun with a magnifying glass that bundles the energy of the sun and achieves things that the others simply don’t, or at least not at that level.

Look at all the books he has written, the videos he has made, the lectures, workshops and masterclass he has imparted, the dozens of TV and radio shows he has created and in which he has starred over decades, the thousands of shows he has done around the globe for private parties, corporations, cruises, festivals, theaters big and small, and a large etc.

BUT at the same time he has spent thousands of hours with magic friends, freely sharing his enormous knowledge and talent. Well, if I consider all that, then I cannot explain this man’s wonderful age.

Sessionen With Juan

I have often been asked how such a meeting with Juan works, what happens, what we do, when we eat and sleep, etc.

So, I thought I’ll give you the schedule of a typical day.

In the forty-seven years I’ve known Juan and spent time with him – many times at one of his homes, sometimes at magic conventions that booked the two of us, sometimes on other adventures we undertook together – the times have considerably shifted from starting magic at noon to the current time, which is around 7… 7pm, that is 🙂

7pm is when we gather on the patio of his house and start the magic, which goes on until dawn… for me that’s ca. 6am, when I usually call it a day (in the real sense of the word!), while Juan goes on until ca. 9am, sometimes later. Let me recount what happens in-between.

On a “normal” day (read: evening–night) – i.e., one we do not go to Cadiz or other nearby city to do a show, give an interview, etc. – the action from 7pm to 10pm takes place around a table on the house’s patio with view on a little garden and stone wall that separates the Maestro’s house from a public park (a little further down starts the sea with the beaches).

What happens now will depend on the group present.

If we are several attending – sometimes up to seven people of the caliber of Jorge Blass, Bill Kalush, Juan Luis Rubiales, Paul Wilson, Joshua Jay, Gary Plants, Rafael Benatar, etc. are there – someone might start performing a trick, and then we all start discussing it.

One of the features of these gatherings is that we want feedback from the Maestro, but also from the others, who are no beginners either.

This will sometimes generate lengthy discussions not only on the mechanics of the trick, but also on construction, the psychology behind it, the symbolism, wording, presentation, how to eliminate solutions, etc., all to make the trick more robust inside and outside.

Then the Maestro himself will of course perform some of his latest findings, and more often than not leave all present speechless, like he has done with me time after time in all the years I’ve known him.

What follows is usually a most interesting lecture not only on the trick itself, but on some obscure principle, or trick deck, a new theory, or what have you, with which he just fooled us.

One of the things that is so incredible and different about Juan Tamariz is, that in all the years he has been generously sharing so much of his knowledge and insights, and with this has created what is known as the Spanish School of Magic, a school of thought inspired by Robert-Houdin, Hofzinser and Vernon, through Ascanio, but brought to full blooming by Tamariz himself.

Meanwhile he has formed masters who preach the Tamariz Magic Gospel around the world in lectures and books and, of course, performances that have developed a style of their own.

Coming back to the sessions: Occasionally its only Juan and me, and these have always been very special moments.

I cannot hide a certain pride when Juan repeatedly told me that Gaëtan (Bloom that is) and I are the two with whom he can have the most divers and profound conversations.

Indeed, our talks go far beyond magic and its infinite methods (we spend a lot of time on that, too, as methods & technique are not trivial at all…), touching on all those subjects connected to magic: psychology, communication, art, philosophy, sciences, poetry, music, literature and an endless etcetera.

It is a hopeless undertaking to try to put into words what happens during those meetings, but one thing is sure: At around 10pm we start to discuss where we have dinner!

And that’s another subject that bonds Juan and me: in all our joint ventures we have always tried to find the places with the most interesting food, and there continued our conversations until after midnight.

Now, you should understand that what for a mere mortal (you and me) is a “late dinner”, for the Maestro is a rich lunch.

Because once we get back home, sometimes long after midnight, again sitting at the table on the patio, at now a little cooler temperatures (San Fernando, near Cadiz all year round boasts summer temperatures with lots of sunshine and very little rain), protected by seven veils from the mosquitos, the magic goes on, and on, and on. And it’s magic, magic, nothing but magic (performing, lecturing, demonstrating, discussing). At the highest level imaginable (at least to me).

Until usually the first starts to break-up at 4am, some – like me – through sheer will-power and mental habituation, can resist until 6am, sometimes even 7am (that’s my personal record).

The Maestro then goes on until 9am, sometimes even longer (!), in conversation with the Muses and the Saints of Magic, who will whisper their secrets into his ears. That’s when he thinks, creates, writes. He might then sleep eight hours, wake up and spend another couple of hours in bed thinking up more things before he joins us downstairs on the patio.

The rest of us – if there are several – will usually get up at 1pm or so, after having tried to sleep at least six hours on and off, as many of us are used to late nights but not that late…

We then usually have lunch in a nearby restaurant, discuss what has happened the previous day (pardon: night), show each other our own things, and then try to take a short nap, before the whole thing starts all over again at 7pm!

Two Impossibilities

The Maestro was at his best when he performed, and perform he did! Let me just describe two of the things he did and that fooled the pants off all of us (us being Gary Plants, his wife Debbie, Paul Wilson, Pedro Morillo and myself).

First was his lates version – well, one of the latest – of… Oil and Water, what else?

The distinguish feature here was the running-gag-line, “I do not touch!”, because he indeed never touched the cards during all of the proceedings.

In effect, he had four of us (Gary, Debbie, Pedro and Paul) each take out a pair of cards, each consisting of a red card and a black card (“I do not touch!”), which one of us then assembled in red-black order (“I do not touch!”).

Paul and Gary then had to stretch out their hands, and Pedro dealt four cards on Paul’s hands and four cards on Gary’s hands (“I do not touch!”).

When each one assembled the cards and turned them over, lo and behold, Paul had all the red cards, and Gary all the blacks!

When Juan then let us into the secret and the details of handling, which were manyfold (!), I was once again reminded how the mind of a genius reflects itself in great complexity but also in great simplicity, to paraphrase Fernando Pessoa.

I believe Juan said this item would be in one of his upcoming Letters to Juan. This will be the sequel of Letters from Juan, the difference being that each booklet starts with a letter someone writes to Juan, instead of him writing one to the reader, as in the first series… I have the honor of being the first to write A Letter to Juan.

Back to the tricks: the Maestro had another one in petto, that absolutely floored us, to wit: The deck cut into three packets face down on the table, Gary, Debbie and Pedro each get to pick one up and hold it in their hands.

Then Debbie was asked to think of a card and name it out loud – she named the Queen of Hearts.

Now Juan proceeded to divine that the card was not in Gary’s hand; he checked, and indeed it was not there.

He then did the same with Pedro, who also checked to verify that the QH was not in his hand either.

Of course the Maestro did this in his inimitable way that brought lots of laughs without destroying the magic atmosphere, a very, very difficult thing that only very, very few master.

Most performers would be happy to get one or the other, and most will go for the other, i.e. the reactions and the laughs, especially professional performers.

What always shocks me on such occasions, is that these performers do not care for the magic atmosphere, but sacrifice it for the laughs, and they do not seem to know the difference. I am not even sure I master this art, but each time I witness a performance by Juan Tamariz, it is a lesson in humbleness.

Okay, back to the trick: Having eliminated that the QH is in the other two packets, it has to be in Debbie’s… from which, however, it disappears… upon checking her packet, Debbie finds her thought-of QH is not there!

Now Paul is asked to point his finger at Juan’s body and move it along his body, stopping at any point. Paul stops at Juan’s shirt breast pocket… from which Juan takes one card, and one card only… it is the Queen of Hearts.

Silence – and Pause of Assimilation (Sharing Secrets, p. 82).

Unexpected Agenda at the Printer

As you are reading this, the files of Unexpected Agenda are at the printer’s shop and they are preparing the installations necessary for printing, which should start at the beginning of next week (Monday, 7th October, 2024).

A subscription offer will be available on the webshop in the next few days, and if you subscribed to the “Newsletter” you should receive an email that tells you so.

Open Prediction: If all goes well I should be able to ship the first signed copies to you beginning/mid November 🙂 … and in December/January you can get it from your favorite dealer.

Magialdia 2024 – The Saga: Coming Soon!

I had the firm intention of reporting my adventures at this year’s Magialdia convention, but having to reread the PDF-files for Unexpected Agenda again, and having to check them after each correction, as with each correction something else would be found that needed to be adjusted, well, this took hours and hours…

… and in a few hours my friend John Carney will be arriving at Basel SBB train station, and tomorrow I’ve organized a small magic get-together in my home with Lorenz Schär and Tino Plaz, my favorite rising-card-stars of Switzerland, plus a dinner with Frank Garcia’s “Super Meatloaf” (from Super Subtle Card Miracles, p. 207) so you will understand that I have to stop here 🙂

I promise (again) to report in The Magic Memories 198…

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Roberto Giobbi

 

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Covid…

These are The Magic Memories 194, gone online Sunday, September 22, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Good News – Bad News – Good News

I am back from my stay with Juan Tamariz and one week at (possibly) the world’s best magic convention, Magialdia, In Vitoria, Spain, where I had a grand time. That’s GOOD news.

But on the last day – or maybe on the travel back (who knows?)–  I and my accompanying magic friend Nicolas caught Covid, which manifests itself now in all its glory… That’s BAD news.

Yesterday and today I’ve used the little energy left to do a final proof-reading of the Unexpected Agenda, which will hopefully go to print next week, so as to be with me end October/beginning November. I will send out a subscription offer via Newsletter (make sure you have subscribed to it on the “home” page of the webshop) as soon as I’m back in shape, so you can order a signed copy at a special price. That’s GOOD news.

Hope to be back here next week to tell you about my adventures in Spain, and whet your appetite to more reports about John Carney, who will be visiting next week-end for three days. That’s more GOOD news 🙂

Going to bed now – that’s GOOD and BAD news… (send get-well wishes, tea and biscuits, but also wine, liquor, decks of cards and cigars for later!)

Wish you all a successful and happy (and healthy!) week,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Magialdia Preview; Solution to “A Problem With Daley”

These are The Magic Memories 195, gone online Sunday, September 22, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Magialdia Preview

As you are reading this I am back from visiting Juan Tamariz, and am now still at  the Magialdia convention in the company of Carney, Wilson, Proust, Cachadiña, Carbonnier, and many more old and new friends.

In the upcoming The Magic Memories 196 I  will recount my impressions from Magialdia, in particular:

• John Carney (his lecture and close-up show)
• Georges Proust (release of the “Slydini Set”)
• Paul R. Wilson (status of the Juan Tamariz documentary)
• new book releases, especially the book about Gabi Pareras
• lectures, shows, dealer novelties, and a large etcetera, of course

Solution to “A Problem With Daley”

As promised in the past two The Magic Memories, here is my solution to “A Problem With Daley”, an item from the cryptic Dr. Daley’s Notebooks, note 224.

Effect: The Aces are lost in the deck and magically gather on top.

Method: Deal four Aces face up onto the table in a row, then put three face-up cards on each. Turn each Ace packet face down. Have a spectator choose an Ace pile and place this pile aside. Take each one of the Ace piles and place them onto the deck, contriving to bring the Aces secretly to the bottom.

To do this Daley suggests what he calls the “Horowitz Mix Move.”

I was at first not able to find out what this is, but speculated that the sleight might consist in mixing the four cards around on top of the balance of the deck and in the process the Ace is slipped to the bottom, sort of a “Reverse Bottom Deal.” You may want to experiment with this.

Alternatively, simply use a Transfer Cut (I recommend “The Double Cut” from Card College Volume 1), apparently losing the packet in the deck, in reality bringing the Ace from the top to the bottom. This is simple and straightforward, and still looks good and convincing.

Do this with all three Ace packets and you will end up with the three Aces on the bottom of the deck, but the audience should assume that they are lost somewhere in the deck. A final Intelligent Injog Shuffle retaining the bottom stock will consolidate this false reality.

As yet another possibility for getting the Aces to the bottom, gather the three non-selected piles on top of each other and insert them in the deck by means of the Diagonal Push-in. This allows you to obtain a break above the inserted cards. Now use either the Erdnase Cull or Marlo’s Lessinout Shuffle to bring the Aces to the bottom.

According to Daley’s note, you would now bottom palm the three Aces into your right hand, place the previously chosen packet on top of deck, adding the palmed Aces in the process, riffle the deck, and then show that all four Aces have gathered.

It seems reasonable to replace the Bottom Palm with Vernon’s Transfer Move.

Dr. Daley and I leave you to find a presentation that makes this little trick meaningful…

Meanwhile my dear friend and editor-proof-reader of Unexpected Agenda, Maxwell Pritchard (of Volkmann-History-of-Magic fame), sent in this comment in reference to the “Horowitz Mix Move” mentioned above:

The mix is described in n. 606, which is on the same page as n. 224 in the original text. See also n. 228.

Here’s my quick interpretation of the mix in the context of the item described in n. 224. We begin after the selected pile has been set aside:

Pick up one of the three unchosen piles and place it face down on top of the face-down talon.

Obtain a break beneath the second card from the top (this is the Double Lift referred to in n. 606. In this case, the Double Lift is not used in a display, and there is no Turnover; the move is merely a means by which to obtain a two-card break).

Perform a Double Undercut to leave the Ace second from bottom. Remove the top and bottom card of the deck to show that neither is an Ace, and return each to the center of the pack.

Repeat for the remaining two unchosen piles.

You are left with three Aces on the bottom of the face-down deck, having repeatedly shown that your cuts have not apparently brought them there.

In short, precisely your Transfer Cuts suggestion, but each time with an extra card added to allay suspicion.

Be sure to check in for The Magic Memories 196, going online on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 00:07 sharp, to read about my experiences at Juan Tamariz’s home and at the Magialdia convention.

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: The Tamariz Symbolic System

These are The Magic Memories 194, gone online Sunday, September 15, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

As you read this—assuming you’re reading it on Sunday, September 15—I am en route to see Juan Tamariz at his home in the south of Spain, or perhaps I’m already there.

I’ve been doing this since 1979, which means a span of forty-five years. If I could remember all the events, anecdotes, tricks, meals, and encounters with him and his magical and non-magical friends over these forty-five years of friendship and learning, I could probably write one of the most interesting and revealing magic books ever published.

But I won’t 🙂 (Not because I don’t want to share, but because I can’t remember all the details…)

On one of my very first visits to his home, back when he lived with his first wife Mary Pura and their two young daughters, Monica and Anna, in Madrid on Lope de Rueda, I acquired some of his early publications. Two of the most remarkable works, in my opinion, are the two volumes dealing with his symbolic system (1975/78).

The Tamariz Symbolic System

Juan Tamariz—truly a genius—developed a system in the 1970s to efficiently take notes, among the thousands of ideas he has contributed to the magic world. This system, somewhat akin to a stenographic method, is based mainly on icons and allows one to capture not only the technical details of a trick but also its presentational and psychological aspects (body postures and language, timing, misdirection, how and where to look, etc.).

In essence, Tamariz created a new language!

Unfortunately, this system never really caught on. I tried to master it myself but had to admit defeat after a short period. When I later asked Tamariz if he knew anyone who had adopted and mastered his system, he named José Carroll—the great and inimitable!—as the only person to do so.

The photo below shows the two original publications detailing the Tamariz Symbolic System.

A much abbreviated version, sort of Concise Symbolic Method, was published much later, at least in German – that is what you see in the photo below.

If you are curious to know how Juan Tamariz would use his symbolic system to write down a trick, blow up the image below, where a relatively complicated trick – Derek Dingles’ “Roll-over Aces” – has been captured in symbolic notation. To see a better resolution CLICK HERE.

Ah, I must interrupt as the Maestro has just woken up, and we’re about to start our night-long magic session on the patio of his lovely house near Cadiz.

This session will be interrupted only by a sumptuous dinner late at night, as is customary here. After midnight, the session will continue, usually until 6 am, when I will go to bed while the Maestro keeps communicating with angels and muses. We are so fortunate that in his many publications (coming soon: Flamenco!) he has been sharing some of the secrets whispered in his ear.

This year, at Juan’s, I’ll be sharing the magic and dining table also with Gary Plants and Paul R. Wilson, which should make for great company 🙂

Next week, I’ll fly directly from the south of Spain to Vitoria in the north of Spain to attend the Magialdia convention, which I’ve mentioned in several past The Magic Memories. Therefore, next week’s The Magic Memories 195 will also be brief due to my absence, but you’ll still find my solution and comments on the problem I posed in The Magic Memories 193, which I called “A Problem With Daley.”

Be sure to check in for The Magic Memories 196, going online on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 00:07 sharp, to read about my experiences at Juan Tamariz’s home and at the Magialdia convention.

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Roberto Giobbi

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Tools of  Magic; A Problem With Daley; Daley’s Do As I Do Variation

These are The Magic Memories 193, gone online Sunday, September 8, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Tools of  Magic

May I remind you of a little anecdote I wrote at the beginning of Card College Volume 1 in regard to the importance of (sleight-of-hand) technique in magic?

Instruments and Tools

A young man resolved to become a woodsman. He bought an ax and set to work. At camp that evening, he proudly told his fellow woodsmen that he had felled nine trees. Inspired by his success, he got up an hour earlier the next morning to increase his productivity. He was dead tired that evening, but had only felled eight trees. Now he was really determined. The next day he worked from dawn to dusk without taking a break. Even so, he only managed to fell six trees. Distressed, he sought the council of an experienced woodsman. The woodsman took the young man’s ax and ran his thumb several times along the edge of the blade, saying calmly, “Young man, every now and then you should sharpen your ax!”

And Thomas Carlyle (not an acquaintance of Francis Carlyle) opined:

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

The other day I received an advertising via email featuring the photo below:

In the accompanying text it said the box is made up of 1,200 pieces.

I immediately went to my magic library, section “card magic”/”gambling-cheating”, quickly made a rough calculation of the card sleights (mind you: just the card sleights) detailed in the Hugard and Braues, the Gansons, the Marlos, the Fortes, the Fulves, the Lorayne’s, and with a big sigh of relief said to myself: “Ours is bigger than yours!”

Indeed, in magic we do have far more than 1,200 sleights – in card magic alone, not taking into account the techniques with other instruments (coins, ropes, silks, cups & balls, etc.).

In my house I only have a few dozen (mechanical) tools that solve 90% of all problems that can be solved with a tool; for other problems I call a workman (curious: in all the years we have called workmen – electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. – it has always been a man…).

In magic it is very much the same thing: If you only do a few card tricks, a Control, a Force, a False Shuffle & False Cut, and a few other sleights will be more than sufficient to solve the technical problems these tricks pose. And you can be very successful with them.

However, if card magic becomes your specialty – as a professional or as  an inspired amateur – then you need specific tools to solve  specific problems.

The Buckle False Count will not solve the problem an Elmsley Count, a Jordan Count, a Hamman Count, a Siva Count, etc. can solve.

Same thing with a Double Lift/Double Turnover, a Control, a False Shuffle, a Packet Switch, and so on, through all 46 operating principles (see Sharing Secrets, p. 142).

For this reason everyone who wants to seriously practice magic, first needs to know and master the basic tools for each instruments, and then carefully choose from the thousands of other tools available those that will solve the technical problems of the best tricks in the most elegant way.

To be thought about.

Although Daley does not specify this, it seems obvious that these cards go into your pocket or other easily accessible place, from where the correct one can be produced when the spectator names it.

For those who are wondering what the “V1-p68” means: Daley wrote his notes into four notebooks (that are transcribed in the Daley’s Notebooks – there might be more).

When organizing the entries, the authors took the notes apart and ordered them according to authors (Vernon, Daley, Horowitz, Baker, etc.).

While this is a good idea in some respect, it is not so for the understanding of a note: Some notes can only be understood (if at all…) if they are read in chronological order. However, taking them apart makes this almost impossible.

Enter Gordon Bruce: When I visited him in Glasgow years ago (will relate in a future The Magic Memories), he showed me how he had painstakingly reconstructed every note to put it back into its original chronological order… What a man!

Back to our note: Try it, as it is an excellent idea. I used this for a while, and think it is an obvious idea not to take any four cards, but cards you know are being called more often than others.

This will vary from culture to culture, and country to country, as the “favorite” cards are connected with the best cards in the card games played in each country. As an example the Seven of Diamonds is an important card in Italian “Scopa del quindici”, and the Jacks are the highest cards in Swiss “Jass”, etc.

BTW: You could take more than four cards, but then the deck gets possibly a bit too thin…

This again makes you think of using duplicates in the first place, rather than cards from the deck, in which case you are working with an “Index”, a powerful concept – not only in card magic…

And if you are using an Index, well, then you can comfortably augment the number of cards (complete deck, half a deck, or only one suit). Obviously, the Index card be split up in two or more Indexes…

But what do you do if you do not have any pockets? Why not use the deck as an Index then? Which brings us back to a stacked deck, best of which a memorized deck, because every memorized deck is an Index in itself.

And this, my friends, we have to leave for another day …

Again, this is an idea that will challenge your creativity, if you accept to tackle the question… And this beautifully shows how the universe of card magic is a huge fractal – long live chaos 🙂

Eviva España!

Next week this time I will be on my way to my yearly visit to Juan Tamariz’s home in the south of Spain, and right after that I will attend the Magialdia convention in Vitoria. If you are at the convention, too, make sure to come by and say “hola” and let me know what you would like to read in upcoming The Magic Memories 🙂

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Sample of Unexpected Agenda – With Edits

These are The Magic Memories 192, gone online Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Sample of Unexpected Agenda – With Edits

I recently read a scientific report that states the efficiency of the human brain starts to deteriorate when the temperature exceeds 23° C (75.2° F).

As I enter my studio to write this week’s The Magic Memories, it is 31° C (87.8° F) outside in the shade, and approximately 35° C (95° F) inside. (No, we do not have air conditioning… but the reason why is not the subject of this blog).

Nonetheless, by working downstairs, where it is cooler, I have been installing the edits for Unexpected Agenda that are now coming in from my editor Max Maxwell and my proofreaders, Mike Vance and Andreas Buchty.

I do not want to bore you with the details of such work, but believe me, this part alone requires several hundred hours of work—on the part of the proofreaders, and on Barbara’s and my part installing the corrections. When you think all the work is done—thinking, planning, researching, writing, rereading, correcting, rewriting, taking photos, doing the layout, rereading everything once more, and correcting it—which has taken almost three years, then you have to add another 20% of time to revise the whole darn thing. It is like at the end of the forty kilometers of a marathon, someone tells you that you have to run another eight kilometers (without extra pay).

So, taking into account the hot weather and the time needed to bring Unexpected Agenda to completion (hopefully in approximately four weeks), working full-time, you will understand why I will keep this week’s The Magic Memories short.

However, I want to give you a glimpse into the book by sharing an excerpt.

When I told Barbara the idea, she suggested that I should give you an edited page rather than the final version. I am not sure if it is a good idea, but… why not? as my friend Dani DaOrtiz would say 🙂

First, you will see how many mistakes I make when writing in English (something you as a reader of The Magic Memories already know!). Second, you might appreciate the nerve-racking work it takes to carefully install the edits while going back and forth between two side-by-side documents on the screen.

It takes me an average of ten minutes per page (day); considering a month has 30/31 days, and a year twelve months, well… I leave the math to you. And that is only the first major edit; two proofreaders with their comments and the mistakes they find follow, although the time to install those edits is admittedly a lot less.

Okay, after this lamento (which is certainly less than that of an Italian soccer player after he has been fouled—as an Italian only child, I am an expert in these things…), I hope you enjoy the “unedited-edited” preview of Unexpected Agenda I have extracted for your entertainment pleasure.

I am not sure if this sample gives an idea of the book’s content, as I just picked one month (May) and three entries at random. Whatever your impression, rest assured that, like in the previous two Agendas, there is a great diversity of topics being discussed (tricks with various props and in diverse genres, subtleties, presentational ideas, professional advice, anecdotes, puzzles & riddles, curiosities, opinions, reports, techniques— a bit heavier on cards than on other instruments, but there are ideas with coins, ropes, calculators, etc.).

I am rereading it now as I install all those edits, and I am very happy with it; it is a book I would want to immediately buy, had I not written it myself 🙂

To read the three entries I have chosen for you, CLICK HERE. (If you open the PDF in a PDF-app, you should be able to read the comments that go with the edits, should you desire to do so.)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Magic and AI; Minor and Major Magic; On the False Swing Cut (and Bobby Bernard)

These are The Magic Memories 191, gone online Sunday, August 25, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Magic an AI

For an upcoming project I am experimenting with AI, specifically with ChatGPT, to see how useful it could be.

It occurred to me to ask the following question: What answers would you suggest if you were a magician and were asked by a spectator, “May I shuffle the cards?” Give ten answers.

Answers from ChatGPT: Here are ten potential responses a magician could use when asked, “May I shuffle the cards?”:

1. “I’ll tell you what—I’ll shuffle them in a way you’ve never seen before. Watch closely!”
2. “In this trick, the cards have already been shuffled by fate itself!” (proceed with the trick)
3. “I would, but these cards are a little camera-shy when someone else handles them.” (with a playful smile)
4. “These cards are in a very delicate balance right now, but I promise, it’s worth it!”
5. “Actually, I’ve trained these cards to only respond to me. Let’s see if they behave!”
6. “How about this: you cut the deck instead? Your influence is just as powerful!”
7. “This deck is in a specific order that will blow your mind in just a second!”
8. “If I let you shuffle, these cards might give away all their secrets!”
9. “I would, but these cards are already under a spell—shuffling might break it!”
10. “Trust me, the magic works best when these cards stay just as they are.”

Some of the answers are good, don’t you think?

And some others make you think… All in all, this is not such a bad yield.

Nothing more to add.

On the False Swing Cut

Again, I come back to Card College Volume 1, chapter on False Cuts, and would like to make a few comments on what has become the most popular False Cut of that chapter after its publication, the False Swing Cut.

To save you the time of having to look it up, just in case you are not sure what I am talking about, CLICK HERE to see the one-page description from the first edition.

Since then there has been a revised second edition and twenty reprints (state of 2024), with a total of ca. 30’000 copies, that is for volume 1 alone… Not so bad for a book which I had simply intended for the German-speaking magicians who at that time did not have any introductory works to card magic. The rest sort of just happened…

Anyway, at that time (I started writing volume 1 in 1990, it then appeared in 1992) Internet was not available, let alone the archives we have today, so neither I nor Stephen Minch, my publisher, nor anyone consulted knew where this False Cut came from. We later found out it was Bobby Bernard’s idea. British magician, actor and coach to many magicians was quite a character, and I had the great pleasure of getting together with him on several occasions over the years I visited England quite often. In spite of his gentlemanly reserve, a trait he shared with most of his fellow countrymen, he took to me and gave me many useful pieces of advice. I really enjoyed reading Val Andrew’s book on Bernard, titled The Coin and Card Magic of Bobby Bernard (Magico Magazine, USA 1982), because it brought back many memories.

Arghh, I am digressing again… that’s what happens if you don’t edit a text… but that’s the deal with this blog as the habitués know 🙂

So, back to our False Swing Cut…

Those who follow my publications will remember that after a few years, and motivated by a comment by my Parisian friend Yves Carbonnier made, I stopped using Bernard’s “tap thing” (fig . 2 of the Card College description), and now simply cut the packets onto the table in two straight movements, which looks much more natural. Later I made it into The Acts Interruptus False Cut, but that’s another conversation.

Looking over my notes on this move, I came across the following comment, which I have copied and pasted into my notebook, however, I apologize for not being able to give a credit (if someone knows, please write in to let me know). Here is the original note (with a few edits of mine for clarification):

The False Swing cut to the table from Card College Volume 1 might be the best false cut from the hands to the table.

But it might not.

If you are holding the deck in Dealing Position and do this cut, it looks wrong.

The problem is, if you were to do a regular cut with the deck held in Dealing Position to the table, the right hand takes the top half to the table, then comes back and takes the bottom half.

In the False Swing Cut, you grab the deck, swing it, and then cut. That’s a little too much movement at that moment for my taste.

But, suppose you are holding the deck in your right hand, and you want to do a real cut to the table. The most natural, direct way is to put it in your left hand, and take away the top half to the table, then complete the cut.

The False Swing Cut to the table simulates this action perfectly, and the extra swing cut action disappears in the larger, motivated action of placing the deck in the left hand.

So, if you can motivate the deck into your right hand first, this is a great False Cut to the table. Move something on the left side of the table with your left hand, which motivates taking the deck in your right hand. Then false swing cut to that spot, and make a bit of a hands-off gesture when you are done.

Makes sense, agree?

Obviously, as mentioned earlier, in this handling you do not use the “tap,” but carry the packets straight onto the table.

Also, the swing-cut action is minimal, not pronounced as it would be in a regular Swing Cut, it is microscopic, just enough for the right hand to grab the lower packet; for this reason the name I gave this False Cut, “The False Swing Cut,” is not a good name for this particular handling… But then again, as Vernon liked to say, you have to “use your head” at all times… especially before elections…

I agree, however, that if you do the False Swing Cut as is in Card College, then – and only then – the Swing Cut may be executed as a Swing Cut.

Which reminds me of yet another lovely handling Berlin’s Axel Hecklau did for me when we discussed the sleight over dinner at the Hintertuxer Zaubertage (21st JUL, 2019): Swing cut the top packet into your left hand, where it falls into Dealing Position. Immediately square the packet, which you are  still holding in your right hand in End Grip, at the fingertips in a pronounced way, looking at it, and saying, “We’ll cut the cards… but very neatly…” Now drop the right hand’s packet onto the table, then take the packet from your left hand and drop it onto the one already on the table in an unsquared condition, complying with the theory of the Actions of Recall (Sharing Secrets, p. 118); finally carefully square the deck… that’s were I may add, “… Swiss precision.” You may have to check with the Chamber of Commerce of your country…

I hope this clears it all up 🙂

Lest I forget… Just realized that I possibly have already written (partially) about this problem before, somewhere in my old Secret Newsletters, and that Mike Maxwell, in The Cardwright (1988), page 137, published a handling by Larry Jennings that comes very close to what you just read. Not sure if great minds think alike, or if one is just a bit more forgetful than the other. But as long as there is no evil intention behind it, all is good, right 🙂

Today is possibly the last “hot day” of the month (I hope!), with ca. 35 degrees centigrade in the shade, time for a large Gin Tonic, and time to…

… wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Remembering Gabi Pareras; The Doppelgänger Cards – Update on Hat Trick from Card College Volume 1

These are The Magic Memories 190, gone online Sunday, August 18, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

Remembering Gabi Pareras

As I leafed through the first volume of my Card College, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Barcelona’s Gabi Pareras (1965–2020) shortly before his untimely passing.

I met Gabi relatively late in my magical life, but when we finally did meet—around twenty years ago—we became instant friends. We shared a deep affection for our “father in magic,” Ascanio, and were both passionately devoted to the endless complexities of magic: its effects, techniques, history, theory, literature, and much more.

Gabi was very fond of my books, and he owned all of them that had been translated into Spanish. He, unfortunately, neither read nor understood English, a fact I found quite astonishing given that he was someone I indisputably considered a genius—a term I do not use lightly, as I can count the number of “geniuses” in magic on the fingers of two hands.

Whenever we had a session, sooner or later, he would inevitably speak of Gran Escuela Cartomágica, the Spanish version of Card College, so skillfully translated by Rafael Benatar from the original German. Gabi was always generous with his compliments, and needless to say, this greatly flattered me. It’s one thing for a beginner to enjoy my books, as they were written with that audience in mind, but when someone of Gabi Pareras’ caliber expresses enthusiasm, the praise carries much more weight.

In the last decade of his life, Gabi made a significant part of his modest income from teaching magic, specifically card magic. He held classes at four different levels, teaching five days a week, from seven to eleven in the evening. When he first told me about this, I had to smile—it reminded me of “office work.” But, of course, this was merely a reflection of his very structured approach to studying and practicing magic.

He had the most detailed and sophisticated curriculum I have ever seen before or since, and I was deeply flattered when he mentioned that the structure of Card College had been very helpful in creating it.

Gabi also had countless ideas—both small and significant—about the techniques, effects, presentations, and theories presented in the Card College books, some of which, he told me, he incorporated into his courses.

Gabi excelled at some of the most intricate card magic I have ever seen, arguably only surpassed by a few of Tamariz’s impossibilities.

Despite this, Gabi and I had a tradition he called “let’s play beginners.” We would discuss simple things—mostly tricks—that became far from simple after we had analyzed and synthesized them.

One such discussion, I recall, concerned the “Hat Trick” on page 62 of Card College Volume 1.

Lest I forget…

If you care to compare the version just described, here renamed “Doppelgänger Cards,” with the original “Hat Trick” from Card College Volume 1, you may find that these are, indeed, two distinctly different pieces of magic.

Undoubtedly, “Hat Trick” served its purpose, offering a sufficiently engaging effect for someone who had mastered the techniques presented in the first three chapters of the book. (It is important to recall that the tricks were confined to employing only the methods taught in the preceding lessons, thereby significantly narrowing the scope of possibilities.)

But now, over thirty years later (!), with three decades of professional performance experience across the globe, coupled with the insights gained from delivering countless lectures, full-day masterclasses, and individual coaching sessions, and after authoring another dozen books, I find myself viewing the same material from an entirely different vantage point.

The simple remains simple, yet now I recognize that even the simplest of things, when revisited with newly-acquired knowledge and enlightened inspiration, embodies a simplicity that conceals great complexity, to paraphrase Miguel de Unamuno, one of Ascanio’s cherished philosophers and poets.

Whereas in “Hat Trick,” the three cards were simply selected and then their mates discovered—a neat display of skill—now the entire routine resonates on an emotional level. The theme of Doppelgängers is intriguing (to say nothing of the word itself), fostering a playful interaction with the audience and lending the performance a deeper sense of meaning.

In any case, I trust you found today’s reflections enjoyable… I shall now raise a cool drink to your health, as the weather here in Switzerland remains warm. After a light dinner (well, relatively “light”…), I will return to work on a significant project that I will share with you once it becomes official. No, it is not Unexpected Agenda, as I am still awaiting feedback from my proofreaders. In the meantime, like a marathon runner who cannot afford to stop upon reaching the finish line, I have already embarked on yet another ambitious endeavor. 🙂

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Summer vacation 🙂

These are The Magic Memories 189, gone online Sunday, August 11, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

The Magic Memories 189, as well as myself, will take a summer vacation and be back next week, unless we decide to extend our vacation… vita brevis, ars longa… and so is summer 🙂

Wish you all a successful and happy week,

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: CCCCC – The Criss-cross Cut Count Convincer Force; The Top-card Dribble Glimpse; Mysterious Kid Cutting the Aces

These are The Magic Memories 188, gone online Sunday, August 4th, 2024, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, and 2023, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.

It is full summertime here in Basel, Switzerland, and it is hot. I cannot say whether it is my age, or my overweight, or the global warming, or all together, but it is exhausting and almost feels like work.

Fortunately, in such situations I am quick to remind myself of what Confucius is reported to have said: “If in life you do what you like, you will never have to work.” I have appointed myself to that occupation a long time ago, so…

This wise man hit the nail on the head, but still, it is a bit too warm…

Therefore, and in spite of all climatic adversities, I am working full-time at finishing Unexpected Agenda. 

That is, Barbara and me are working, Barbara having already passed by far the two-hundred-hour work time to produce the photos and illustrations for the book, and is now layouting each and every page of what will very probably be a 384-page publication. (I started the Unexpected Agenda-file in October 2021, so by now have already invested over one thousand work hours in the project.)

Recently, Maxwell Pritchard, who already helped us with Sharing Secrets in an admirable way, has joined the team and is donating most of his time in August to editing the book (I cannot count his hours…). As a favor to him, please, nobody who is reading these The Magic Memories tell him about them: If he read them, he would suffer a heart-attack (as I have said repeatedly, the The Magic Memories are completely unedited, and I read through them only once, with all the consequences, for which I take up all responsibility…).

Soon Mike Vance will reread the entire book once again, to make sure that I correctly installed all of Max’s edits; if you count at least ten minutes per page, that will be another 3’840 minutes (64 hours!).

After that we will print out every page for the second time (you have to print the text to see how it really looks…), look through everything again for the n-th time, and finally send off everything as a print-PDF to my friend Francesco Mugnai, who sits in Florence, Italy (yes, “bella Italia!”), with his Florence Art Edizioni, and will set the finishing touches on the printable PDF, plus create the cover and supervise the printing, binding, cellophaning, shipping, etc. All this done by different companies to optimize the costs of production, which are getting worse every day.

Add to this that eventually I will be paid in Euros and in Dollars, once the book starts to sell, and that these two currencies keep falling toward the Swiss Franc (one Dollar used to be 1 Franc 80 Cents in 2000, today it is less than 90 Cents…), but the Cappuccino now costs up to CHF 6.50 (today equivalent to €7 and US$7.6), well, then you might wonder why we are doing all this.

Answer: I am stupid, but I would not know anything else to do…

I had to say this, it’s therapy… thank you for listening 🙂

All this said, let us turn to today’s The Magic Memories, all on cards 🙂

The CCCCC Force – The Criss-cross Cut Count Convincer Force

No, the sleight did not originate at FFFF…

The first three C’s  are a natural from the Criss-cross Cut Force, also known as Cross-cut Force.

The “Count Convincer” part came from rereading what is possibly Dai Vernon’s very first publication – certainly the first publication for the lay market – namely Secrets of Magic, from 1924 (take note!), in a trick named “The Whispering Queen” (I will reproduce that with an addition on one of the 365 days of Unexpected Agenda).

The spectator is handed the deck for shuffling. Ask another spectator to cut it, and then complete the cut by placing the lower half askew on top of the other; that is the standard procedure.

However, note that the deck was shuffled before it was cut, or else the cut does not make any sense. You will obviously have to glimpse the top card now, if it does not matter which card is forced, or replace the force card(s) from the Palm, or (false) shuffle the deck yourself (use the Curry–Tamariz telescoped-deck ploy).

Ask, “Do you know how many cards you cut off?” This is, of course, Ascanio’s “Clouding Question” (Sharing Secrets, p. 30).

Quickly count the upper packet’s cards face down onto the table, e.g., twenty-two.

Immediately take the top card of the tabled packet and give it to the first spectator, “…you get the twenty-third…” Give the next card to a second spectator, “……you get the twenty-fourth…” Ask the third spectator to take the next card, commenting, “…and you get the twenty-fifth card. Please look at the cards and remember them.” This is in case you want to force three cards. Adapt to one card, etc.

Lest I forget…

In spite of its simplicity, the Criss-cross Cut Force has received quite a bit of attention over the years. If you are interested in the subject, the indefatigable Jon Racherbaumer has published an e-book available from library.com, titled CRISS-CROSSINGS – Unleashing the X-Force, 34 pages all dedicated to this polyvalent Force. It was actually while reading in that publication that I forced myself to look again at the Criss-cross Cut Force, identifying its illogical bits. As a result I came up with what I think to be the best handling of it, at least to my criteria, and I called it “The Arete Crisscross Force”; it will be the entry of December 10 in the upcoming Unexpected Agenda, and the first time it sees print in English. 

The Top-card Dribble Glimpse

This is an extension, or variation, if you will, of what I have dubbed the Top-card Riffle Glimpse in Card College Volume 2 (p. 355).

Cannot remember if I ever told you how I got the idea of the Top-card Riffle Glimpse.

In an older book by Rolf Andra (Karten-Kombinationen 1949 and Karten-Magie – Das Handbuch der Magie 1956), he described what he called “das Ankippen”, where you lifted the inner end of the deck’s top card to glimpse it.

Albeit practical, I found it a bit obvious. So, I thought that the Glimpse would be better covered if the deck’s inner end was lightly riffled, and the last card lifted off a bit more and its index sighted.

This was a bit better, but still obvious to the attentive spectator.

Then I was reminded of Erdnase’s “Blind Riffles – I. To Retain the Top Stock.” Look at figure 6 on p. 35:

Erdnase glimpses the top card during a Riffle Shuffle by slightly drawing it inward as the riffle ends.

If you have older cards, you might not be able to cleanly pull the top card inward.

So, I started to obtain a break under the top card before starting the riffle, and this worked like a charm.

It had the added advantage, that I could sight the index of the top card already when mid-way through the shuffle, so that I could lift the gaze and look into the audience, saying something, as the Riffle Shuffle ended.

In an act of interdisciplinarity, I transferred this idea to Rolf Andra’s original “Ankippen” and as a result got the Top-card Riffle Glimpse.

And now for the variation, which is really minimal, you will say, but I found it to be really very practical: Hold the deck in Dealing Position, obtain a break under the top card, briefly holding it with the little finger. With the other hand grip the deck in End Grip, the thumb taking over the break, and then dribble the cards onto the table.

As with the Top-card Riffle Glimpse, you will be able to glimpse the top card’s inner left index when you have dribbled off about half the cards, so you can then look up and say something (meaningful!), e.g., “Your card is somewhere here in the pack – please do not forget it.”

To avoid flashing the maneuver, turn to the spectator furthest to your left, if you are right-handed.

Mysterious Kid Cutting the Aces

This next item will probably only please a few among you, so I apologize to the rest, but I find it a lovely item.

I got the inspiration by reading “The Cull Riffle of the Mysterious Kid” on p. 212 of Dai Vernon’s Revelations, which Vernon called “the final book of the New Testament” 🙂 I still prefer the edition of 1984 that respects the original pagination of The Expert at the Card Table, and has Persi Diaconis’ superlative “Introduction”.

Here it is, directly from my Evernote-Notebook:

Cutting the Aces with Block Transfer

Variation I

Inspired by reading Cull Riffle Mysterious Kid

Effect

The deck is riffle shuffled 4 times, each time about a quarter of the deck is cut forward to the table. Eventually 4 packets rest on the table – the top card of each is an Ace.

Method

False shuffle and false cut to retain the 4 Aces on top.

Do the 1st part of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, ending up with about one quarter of the deck separated on top. Undercut at the break to the left, and Riffle Shuffle the packets together, letting an Ace fall last. Do Vernon’s Triumph Shuffle, transferring the top Ace onto the right packet, which is then pulled out and cut forward to the table: it will have the Ace on top, with the balance of the deck having the other 3 Aces on top.

Repeat twice, leaving 4 packets on the table, each with an Ace on top.

To vary the handling, use a Pull-out Shuffle With Block-transfer, or a Push-through With Block-transfer, or a Zarrow Shuffle, or a Slip Cut (on the last 2 Aces).

Variation II

In my small white notebook it says «Fechter Cutting the Aces with Zarrow», but I couldn’t find it in Fechter’s book. It reminds me of a similar effect and handling shown to me by Jason England in Toronto, in a lunch break at 31 Faces North.

Effect

The deck is riffle shuffled and run cut, then about half the cards lifted off – the top card of the lower packet is an Ace, the card below and above being shown as indifferent cards. The deck is completed, and the other 3 Aces are found in a similar way.

Method

The 4 Aces are on top. False shuffle and false cut to retain them there.

Add 2 x-cards in 2 ordinary Riffle Shuffles. Show that there are no Aces on the top and the bottom.

For the first Ace: Do the first two parts of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, Zarrow under 2 cards, retain a break between the two packets as you square up, slide the deck forward, and then cut and complete the cut. Turn the first Ace face up and leave it on the table.

For the second Ace: Do the first two parts of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, undercut to the left, Zarrow under 2 Aces, retain a break between the two packets as you square up. Slide deck forward and with your right hand cut off at the break, turn top card of tabled packet face up to reveal the second Ace. Show top few cards and bottom few cards of tabled packet to be indifferent cards. Complete deck by placing the packet in your right hand on top of tabled packet.

The third Ace: Dribble cards on the table, as you say that the third Ace is at position 37.» Do the Benzais Spin Cut to cut off apparently 37 cards and reveal the third Ace. Show top and bottom cards, and then complete the deck to bring the last Ace on top.

The forth Ace: Add 2 x-cards in 2 ordinary Riffle Shuffles. Show that there are no Aces on the top and the bottom.

Do the first two parts of Vernon’s Cold Deck Cut, undercut to the left, Zarrow under 2 Aces, retain a break between the two packets as you square up. Undercut to the left. Riffle the packet from the right hand into the left packet, dropping the top 2 cards last. Do a Vernon Simple Push-through, run-cutting the extracted packet on top of the tabled packet, retaining a break. Slide deck forward, cut at break, and reveal top card of tabled packet to be the last Ace.

To end replace the 4 Aces on top of the balance of the deck and do three Riffle Shuffle à la Vernon Top Stock Control (see Secret Agenda, May 26 – Top-Stock Control with Riffle Shuffle… this is sensational) ; reveal the Aces to have returned to the top.

Wish you all a successful and happy week,